March 15, 2006
For immediate release

Differential Pressure Plus, Inc. is a small company in Connecticut, which manufactures a little known product called a differential pressure gauge. These gauges are mostly used to monitor filters in order to determine the optimum time to change the filter element. By noting the buildup of pressure drop across a filter element, the filter element life can be greatly extended. Think about it….as a filter gets more and more crud stuck to its surface, it actually becomes a better filter, as the crud keeps more crud from passing. This is a well recognized condition, and the filter guys call it “cake”. If you don’t keep track of the pressure drop, the cake can build up and choke off the flow, or collapse the cartridge. The easy way out of this risk is to periodically toss out the oil and the filter. This is how we all have been trained by the oil guys and the filter guys.

The oil barons tell us that “the oil breaks down” and needs regular replacement. Strange, how it sits underground for millions of years, but only lasts 3 months in our cars. Hmmmmm. Are you going to trust me, or the guy from Exxon who makes 145 million bucks a year, and sues a little old grandmother, who made a few Xmas cards that said “ Merry XXmas”! The truth comes out when the price of lubricants and the price of their disposal gets our attention. There are additives in oil which are lost with time, and high temperature can cause a soot problem, but most oil additives have little to do with the lubricity of the oil. As a matter of fact, some additives like PTFE can cause clogging problems. Dupont has issued a warning that their TEFLON is not recommended for an oil additive, even though you can find it in many popular oil additives whose main selling feature is a PTFE additive When it comes down to economics, the best additive may be more oil. The filter people see regular cartridge changes as an easily maintained, surefire cure for neglecting optimization of oil filter life. Many trucking fleets have their oil checked regularly by test labs to predict excessive wear, and dilution of oils, but when these testing labs report back measurements on both “viscosity” and “shear”, we should question their motives, as they are exactly the same thing. More and more companies are getting into lubrication management, which is becoming a growing field with its own trade magazines, and training courses and seminars. (1)

The lubrication industry is now moving to more monitoring the oil condition and monitoring the filter differential pressure to extend the lubricant life up to 100 times.(2) Huge cost savings are being realized by periodic testing of viscosity, and adequate cooling of the lubricant as well as taking steps to prevent water vapor as a contaminant. We have learned of an endurance test which was performed by a well known oil filter company, who ran two identical V8’s the equivalent of 100,000 miles. After “blueprinting’ the two engines, they faithfully changed oil on one engine at 3000 mile intervals, and just topped off the other engine when necessary . They were aghast to find no measurable difference in wear at the end of the test. Of course we never heard of this test, but we got the results from our consultant, who was the Engineering Manager of the well known filter manufacturer, at the time of the test project.

Differential Pressure Plus Chief Engineer, Joe Gordon, has built a unique test vehicle with the following design goals: 50 MPG, 50,000 mi/oil/filter change, 0-60 in 8 seconds. This car is really a fun project to demonstrate lubricant conservation and maintenance, but the resulting 3 wheel, single occupant car is not as impractical as its first impression may convey. When you consider that 67% of all automobile trips are with a single occupant, the design gets more attractive. Actually, this type of vehicle has been described as an MSV, which stands for “mission specific vehicle”. (3) Most third world countries, like India and Thailand, are employing 3 wheeled motor vehicles for economic reasons for years. We don’t see Americans changing from Hummers to Tuk Tuks soon, but if a new class of vehicle could bring great savings in fuel and oil, and still be a blast to drive, we may popularize being frugal. Starting with a shaft drive, Honda Goldwing motorcycle, a custom frame was designed with the help of streetrodder/builder Mike Scaramella, and designer, Walter Johnson, to incorporate a Heidt’s open wheel independent front end. The front end was modified to put the rack and pinion in front of the cross member in order to keep the front wheels closer to the center of gravity for (rollover) stability. The vehicle is actually registered as a motorcycle in Connecticut. A roll cage and roll bar puts the safety a bit above a conventional motorcycle or trike. The aerodynamic body is of urethane foam, which can be easily shaped with simple tools, sandwiched between West System epoxy resin and fiberglass cloth. Gordon knows a bit about auto maintenance, as demonstrated by the 1967 Cutlass convertible, which is a one owner vehicle, which he bought new 40 years ago! Gordon was, until starting Differential Pressure Plus, the engineering manager of a Fortune 500 auto parts company, and has two engineering degrees, and is a certified (ASE) mechanic. Starting with a 0-5 PSID DP gauge on the dashboard, it features two fiberglass spin on tandem filters made by 3-B Filters of Oak Lawn, IL. The oil passes through a 10 micron filter then a 3 micron filter, with the differential pressure gauge attached at the inlet of the 10 micron, and the outlet of the 3 micron filter. 3-B was selected because of the high efficiency of their fiberglass elements, and they allow a choice of relief valve settings. To prevent overheating, there is a small oil cooler in the nacelle, and an oil temperature gauge on the dash. We recognize that a DP gauge on the dashboard is a bit impractical, as it is not a good idea to have lube oil behind the dashboard for safety considerations. The auto industry will probably not consider a more practical pressure switch idiot light as a dashboard option in the near future, but the point of the test vehicle is to demonstrate to industrial lubrication engineers that there is no “silver bullet” solution for lubrication maintenance, and each application requires a study of the lubricant condition and the filter condition to optimize the life of this increasingly valuable commodity. The 3 wheeler is jokingly called “The DPP Big Wheel”, but hopefully the message will reach many people who are concerned about the high cost of the convenience of wasteful oil and oil filter changes. For more information on this car or differential pressure gauges and switches, go to www.differentialpressure.com.

(1) Machinery Lubrication Magazine
(2) See Paradyne Filter
(3) See “Alternative Cars in The 21st Century” by Robert Q Riley

Differential Pressure Plus, Inc.
16 Carriage Hill Drive
Branford, CT 06405 USA
Ph. 203 481 2545
Fx. 203 483 7169
dpgauge@aol.com
www.differentialpressure.com